This is another addition to my manual coffee brewing experience– another time-consuming, laborious, and delicate but worth-my-time-method of choice. In addition to my Hario Coffee Syphon which never fails to deliver magnificent cup of coffee, I now brewing with my Yama Syphon/Vacuum Pot.

The process of syphon or vacuum brewing (although totally different from other forms of brewing) is pretty much the same for various types of syphon or vacuum pot– regardless of maker or brand. What may be different is the source of heat for brewing. As opposed to my Hario Coffee Syphon (which is a ‘tabletop” with the heat source either from an alcohol burner or butane burner), Yama Syphon/Vacuum Pot is a ‘stovetop’ which can either use gas stoves or electric stoves under a medium or medium-high heat.

Without a doubt, I enjoy the whole vacuum coffee brewing process. With an all glass brewing apparatus, you have a complete, 100%, unobstructed view of the whole process– and along the way, you can’t help but be amazed of the whole process while you get excited for the finished product.

In this post, I am sharing the step-by-step process when brewing using Yama Syphon/Vacuum Pot. The whole process would essentially…

Start with this:

And end with this:

Brewing Process (presented in sequence):

Pour almost boiling water into the lower bowl, up to the desired level for the number of cups you want to brew. Note that “almost boiling water” is preferred mainly because of 2 reasons: 1) it reduces overall brewing time and 2) it protects the glass from too much exposure from heat which may shorten its lifespan.

Attach the filter to the upper glass bowl stem or vacuum tube. The filter would have metal hook. Pull this hook until the bottom of the vacuum tube. This would ensure that the filter it tightly sealing the upper glass bowl so that no coffee grounds would enter the lower bowl during the brewing process.In hooking the filter to the bottom of the tube, make sure that you release the hook slowly and not carelessly releasing it as it may potentially break the glass.

Insert the upper bowl onto the lower bowl. Position the upper bowl by pressing lightly, without forcing onto the lower bowl by simply inserting the vacuum tube to the lower bowl. Make sure its tightly secured and that there is no space between the vacuum tube and the rubber gasket. Do this carefully while the entire apparatus is sitting securely on the stovetop.

Add ground coffee into the upper bowl (at this point, the filter separates the upper and lower bowl and thus, acts a barrier for the ground coffee). The amount of ground coffee essentially depends on how strong you want your coffee but on the average its a level spoonful per cup (about 10g) of ground coffee. For this type of brewing, coffee beans should be medium-grain size (not too fine). After putting the coffee grounds, you may now turn on the stove and then place the plastic cover on top of the upper bowl.

While the water boils and when it reached a certain degree, the air expanded by the heat causes the water to rise into the upper bowl. Gradually the water will mix with the coffee grounds. When water from the lower bowl rises to the upper bowl, with the plastic spoon, mix the mixture of the water and ground coffee lightly. The mixing also somehow determines that strength of the coffee. You may play around with this as you experiments on what suits you best.

Continue to let the water boil until all the water at the lower bowl has gone up to the upper bowl. Since the lower bowl will then be almost empty, take extreme care not to overheat. Wait until lower bowl is almost empty. Note that the lower bowl will not be totally empty as some “bubbling” water will remain before the “vacuum” process starts

Once the lower bowl is almost empty, turn off the stove. Almost instantaneously, the coffee will drip down the lower chamber– this essentially is the “vacuum” process.

Wait for coffee to drip naturally into the lower bowl. This will happen almost immediately after the heat source is removed from the lower bowl as the change in temperature creates the vacuum that sucks the water/coffee from the upper glass down to the lower bowl. Remove the upper bowl by gently rocking back and forth, and place it on stand. This may take a bit of practice as it may be difficult to remove it the first time. Don’t try to use force, just gently rock it.

After this, you now have your hotta cuppa coffee, freshly brewed. The lower bowl with its plastic handle will also act as your coffee pot– allowing you to serve your freshly brewed coffee immediately.